Who sows the serpent's teeth, let him not hope
To reap a joyous harvest. Every crime
Has, in the moment of its perpetration;
Its own avenging angel-dark misgiving,
An ominous sinking at the inmost heart.

-SCHILLER.

But the habit of omitted duty may not be attended, step by step, with that misgiving, that ominous warning, that sinking at the heart. And yet it may have secured the perdition of its victim more certainly, more inevitably, than crime itself. There is no safety but in prayer.

How many of these minds are there, to whom scarcely any good can be done! They have no excitability. You are attempting to kindle a fire of stones. You must leave them as you find them, in permanent mediocrity. You waste your time if you do not employ it on materials which you can actually modify, while such can be found.

JOHN FOSTER.

By nature's law, what may be, may be now.
There's no prerogative in human hours.

In human hearts what bolder thoughts can rise
Than man's presumption on to-morrow's dawn?
Where is to-morrow? In another world.
For numbers this is certain; the reverse

Is sure to none; and yet on this Perhaps,

This Peradventure, infamous for lies,

As on a rock of adamant we build

Our mountain hopes, and spin eternal schemes.

Night Thoughts, 1.

IF I had sought mine own commendation, it had been a much fitter course for me to have done as gardeners use to do, by taking their seeds and slips, and rearing them first into plants, and so uttering them in pots, when they are in flower, and in their best state. But because my purpose was rather to excite other men's wits than to magnify mine own, I was desirous to prevent the uncertainness of my own life and times, by uttering rather seeds than plants; nay, and further, as the proverb is, by sowing with the basket rather than with the hand.

LORD BACON.-Letter to Dr. Playfere.

ABSURD presumption! Thou who never knew'st

A serious thought, shalt thou dare dream of joy?

No man e'er found a happy life by chance,

Or yawned it into being with a wish,

Or with the snout of grovelling appetite

E'er smelt it out, and grubbed it from the dirt.

An art it is, and must be learnt

With unremitting effort, or be lost.

The clouds may drop down titles and estates,

And leave us perfect blockheads in our bliss.
Wealth may seek us, but wisdom must be sought,
Sought before all; but how unlike all else

We seek on earth!-'tis never sought in vain.

Night Thoughts, 8.

CHAPTER XIII.

Lessons from the abundance of Unproductive Seed-Duty of sowing at all seasons, in all opportunities, because of the Uncertainty in what Opportunity lies the blessing-What one week's neglect, or one Sabbath's waste, may do-The Providential Allotment, and the Spiritual Second Sight.

A WONDERFUL and solemn lesson of nature, is to be found in the quantity of rotting seed, unblest. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. With what exquisite beauty and profoundness of meaning did the Saviour of the world apply that illustration to the necessity and the glory of his own death! It has also a grand and sacred meaning for ourselves; for we must all die to self, if we would live for grace and glory; we must die to self, if we would rise again for others. We must die to sin, if we would live in holiness. We must die in and with Christ, if we would rise with him in life eternal. Sorrow and self-death in Christ are the spring and root of life and glory. In this death, the principle of life remains, and passes into new forms of blessedness; but without this death, the old corn abideth alone, and rots and dies absolutely, no life springing from it. Just as a grain of seed, in germinating, dies to itself,

but passes into other life and fruit; but if it do not germinate, and die into life, it abideth alone, and is lost.

But the lesson we wish now to insist upon, is the lavishness of Nature with her seed, and yet out of how small a portion of the seed sown, the harvest may grow. Out of fifty seeds, fortynine may possibly abide alone, and the fiftieth only may die into life. This thought seems to have led the Poet Tennyson to pause in his imagination that the final destiny of all souls must be good, and to tremble at the shadow of eternal evil. So careful of the type, Nature seems, so careless of the single life,

“That I, considering everywhere

Her secret meaning in her deeds,
And finding that of fifty seeds
She often brings but one to bear,

Must falter, where I firmly trod."

But in this matter we tread firmly, only when we walk by Divine Revelation, only when in God's light we see light. Not by dreams or wishes can we determine the destiny of souls; but one thing we do know: Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish; and He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; but he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.

The lesson from the profusion of seeds, while yet the abundant harvest comes from comparatively few seeds, is that of a bountiful lavishness in sowing. Nature teaches us, whatever else we withhold, not to withhold necessary truths, in which are contained all the possibilities of life, but to scatter such seed broadcast, unmeasured, there being no danger of a wasteful excess. Even that which does not spring up, may go into the